TERROR IN LONDON / BRITISH MOOD: July 7 seen as equivalent of United States' Sept. 11 -- security crackdowns, national ID cards will probably result

Colin Freeman, Chronicle Foreign Service

Published 4:00 am, Friday, July 8, 2005

2005-07-08 04:00:00 PDT London -- The scene at the entrance to the Brixton Underground station in south London on Wednesday morning was a typical one for hardened commuters. A team of officials in blue blazers was fending off a large, impatient-looking crowd -- a sign that the subway line had been shut down yet again.

It could have been a standard security alert, a common phenomenon in a city scarred for years by Irish Republican Army bombs. More likely it was a technical problem with the train, the lines or signals, or some other glitch on the chronically overstretched, underfunded transit network known as the Tube. Occasionally, it's what London officials euphemistically describe as "customer action" -- a person who has hurled himself under a train.

The frustrated passengers crammed into a No. 3 bus, only to hear an instruction crackle over the driver's radio after a few hundred yards. "Pull over at the next stop and go no further," said a voice from the London Transport control room. "No buses allowed into central London."

Slowly, the reality of the situation trickled through. A nearby police officer said explosions had ripped across the city. The No. 30 bus from Hackney to Marble Arch had its roof blown off; two passengers were killed, and scores of others were wounded. Chances are some of them had clambered aboard the bus because of the problems on the Tube.

Many of those who hadn't made it to their workplace probably took the advice of the Metropolitan Police and headed home to watch events unfold on television. There, they heard unsettling news. The explosions could have been terrorist bombs, and while it was too early to speculate, it was probably the work of extremists related to al Qaeda.

The coverage had a mesmerizing quality. In pubs, bars, cafes, offices, anywhere with a TV screen, a crowd gathered, like they did when the planes flew into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Though the casualties are far fewer -- as viewers were constantly reminded -- July 7 is already likely to go down as Britain's Sept. 11.

The question now is what impact it will have on the way the British go about their lives.

Traditionally, Britons are phlegmatic when bombs go off. Part of it is the famous stiff upper lip, which has seen the country through events like the Nazi bombing of London known as the Blitz. (As viewers were reminded, Wednesday's bombings were the worst attack on the British homeland since World War II.)

Their stoicism is also born of 30 years of domestic terrorism, during which the IRA repeatedly bombed British pubs, offices, shops and army barracks.

This time feels different. The IRA, despite their deadly tactics, usually played by some kind of rules: Attacks on civilian targets were often preceded by a telephoned warning, allowing time to evacuate the site.

The suspects in the latest bombings have no such qualms.

The fear now is that British authorities may try to do too much to stem such sneak attacks. With so much blood spilled, there will be understandable pressure to implement measures to "guarantee" it will never happen again.

The most likely immediate ramification will be the introduction of identity cards, a measure Prime Minister Tony Blair has long sought but civil liberties activists have managed to block.

Critics have argued that terrorists could easily forge such documents and, more importantly, that such a move would end the age-old British tradition of not having to prove to anyone who you are. But it's going to be hard to make those arguments to someone who spent half an hour trapped amid carnage in a smoke-filled train or to a relative of one of the people who were killed.

Greater crackdowns on those who illegally seek asylum in Britain and tougher restrictions on visitors from the Middle East are also likely. Carrying cameras and handbags into public facilities is likely to become more difficult.

But no amount of security, it seems, can prevent the worst from happening. In Iraq, virtually every public building and checkpoint is surrounded by anti- blast walls and armed guards. Yet dozens of people are being killed nearly every day.

In the urgency of the moment, other important issues may go by the wayside. Until 9 a.m. Thursday, British leaders and much of the public were focused on the G-8 summit and the idea of "Making Poverty History in Africa."

Such pressing needs in the rest of the world may be forgotten as Fortress Britain is hurriedly built.

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